Why Did I Join?

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By Jee Young Kim

This past week, I attended the summer reading institute led by the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. One of the main parts of the reading workshop model they talked about is having students engage in book clubs. As we had a chance to participate in our own book club during the conference, I was reminded of how meaningful it was when I could talk to others about the book I was reading. I was excited to hear other peoples’ thoughts, interpretations and questions about the book.

The Global Read Aloud project is so exciting because it creates an international book club for our classes. My fifth grade students from Seoul, Korea will be able to talk, discuss, and share with students from all over the world about Tuck Everlasting. Thanks to the Internet, we can connect to classrooms thousands of miles away, something that I could never imagine doing when I was in fifth grade. This project makes the reading that we do in class more meaningful and relevant for the students. They will have an authentic audience of other students to share their reading with.

Another huge reason that I joined is for myself as an educator. I am thrilled about this opportunity to collaborate with educators from all over the world. It’s not often you can say that you helped plan a global read aloud with talented teachers from outside your school, district, state and country! It is always encouraging to work with other teachers who will put in extra time to plan, write posts, upload videos, leave comments, take photos, and more because of our passion for learning and teaching.

I can’t wait for this project to start with our students in September. I just bought a copy so that I can reread the book again over the summer before school starts. I think the last time I read it was when I was in fifth grade. I hope you and your students will join us on this global journey!



The Big Reveal – Which Books Will We Read Aloud

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So finally the books have been decided and I am happy to announce the choices for the Global read Aloud 2011.

 Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

and

Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown

So join us for this 4-week event as we share one read aloud and connect globally through our shared experience.  More information will come as to how you can connect and how you can share.  But for now, get excited.  We have our books and now the planning can begin.

To join, please sign up here and you can also join our Google group if you would like to be behind the scenes more on this project.

Why I Joined This Project

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       Since I joined Twitter a few months ago, I have quickly seen the value in connecting with educators from around the world.  I would like my students to have some of the same opportunities.  The Global Read Aloud Project seems to me like a great vehicle for these connections. Beginning with a common framework of the same book, many classes of students will have the opportunity to interact with other students.  Whether the interactions are discussion groups through chat or Skype, reading each other’s blogs, or any other option, the chance to learn and interact with other people outside our local community is highly valuable to me.  I hope that you’ll consider joining this project and learning with right along with the over one hundred people who have already signed up.

2 Books to Reach Everyone

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Big news today as it has been decided that this year’s Global Read Aloud will feature two books rather than one, one aimed at K through 3 and the other at 4th grade and up.  This means facilitators can choose which book they feel most comfortable reading aloud to students and we hope that more people will join the project because of it.

The two books are still up for debate, however, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt seems to be a favorite for the 4th and up choice.  It is not too late to get involved, just sign up and get ready for the kick off on September 14th.

A Book to Choose?

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Suggestions have started to come i for which book to choose for this year’s global read aloud.
To be considered a book must:

  • Have global appeal
  • Be appropriate for kids as young as 2nd grade up to 8th grade
  • Provide opportunities for discussion, reflection, blogging etc.
  • Be appealing to both males and females

Some recent suggestions include:

  • Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  • Treasure Island
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events
  • The Sister’s Grimm
  • The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
  • James and the Giant Peach
  • Cricket in Times Square
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
So let us know your thoughts on books either in the comments or joining our Google Group.  I look forward to connecting with everyone again.

Global Read Aloud 2011 Dates Set!

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It’s a new year and even though we still have half of  a school year let, my mind is starting to wander back to the global read aloud.  So welcome, if this is your first time here, and welcome back if you were part of the first Global Read Aloud.

What started as a simple idea took on a life of its own; one book to connect the world.  More than 30 schools around the globe participated through Twitter, Skype, blogs, wikis and email.  This year, I promise it will only be better.  Through the power of one shared read aloud, I hope to facilitate connections between students throughout the world.  You decide how much time the project will take for  you, the choices are many:  comment on other blogs, create slideshows, skype with other classrooms, tweet out comments; the sky is the limit.

So join me as I embark on another Global Read Aloud September 19th through October 14th.  The book has yet to be determined by all of us, but I promise more collaboration, more ways to introduce technology, and more students being connected throughout the world.

This year we will have weekly project suggestions, as well as suggested lesson-plans for introducing technology.  We will also utilize Edmodo more to give students a voice even in their free time.

Join us here, make sure you follow the hashtag #glread11 on Twitter, and contact me with any questions.

Connected by a Book – Gill-Ville Goes Global!

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Thanks so much for the opportunity to participate in the project and contribute this guest post about the Global Read Aloud. When I stumbled upon the twitter post announcing the concept of connecting classrooms with a story, I thought that it was a brilliant idea that I just had to get involved in! We began reading the story online, projecting it on our SMARTBoard.

Students took turns using the hand-held microphone for our new sound field system while reading aloud. Our special education class had more volunteers anxiously waiting for their next turn than in any other read aloud situation we’ve encountered. As we became more interested in the story we wanted to see the actual book. This allowed us to take our story mobile and we finished reading the story in our new outdoor classroom. It did bring me a little pleasure to see their desire
to physically hold the story and appreciate the pages (a little balance in our technology-focused school).

The vocabulary in the story was a little out-dated and above some of my students in this congregated setting, however the numerous characters introduced throughout were interesting enough to capture their attention and imagination. We used this project to introduce many web tools that we’ll be using this year. It was amazing to share our character vokis, wallwisher and voicethread predictions, animoto videos displaying our illustrations, and tagsxedo word clouds on the Global Read Aloud wiki .

Even more amazing were the connections we were making with other classes beyond our own school building. The relationships developed during conversations about the story and introductions to class/school/town were fabulous. We were able to connect twice through a chat site, twitter numerous times, and skype on two occasions. During these sessions, we had wonderful discussions with a grade 2 class in New Brunswick, another in Pennsylvania, a grade 4 class in Wisconsin, a 5/6 class in Nova Scotia, and a grade 6 class in Iowa! We mapped out the route we would take to travel between schools and posted them to our own class wiki page. Not only did we connect about the characters and plot development of the story, we shared pictures and school website links. I am convinced it is these connections that made the project such a success.

Thank you once again for organizing such an amazing reading network for our students and providing them a place to showcase their ideas and interpretations. I look forward to future involvement with these projects. I am even more excited to maintain some of our Global Read Aloud connections throughout the year ahead.